The sequence meta file can do two things, one make the construction of an a_Image structure easy by specifying its components, or it can contain the data that is to be processed. The former makes the .smf file not strictly necessary, the second makes the .smf very large. It is up to the programmer what type of .smf is generated. Make no mistake one should not assume that the meta files are consistent across applications, they are used primarily to facilitate automated data reduction across a package of reduction tools.
Aaron Smith
2004-03-04